Opinions Please... (i havnt heard enough yet)

[Grug]

Hi all from melbourne australia.

So heres the deal. I purchased my new tank on saturday after 2 weeks of reading, googling, listening, and screaming and kicking!

Its now tuesday night. I have my tank (Aqua One 620T stock standard out of the showroom with suitable heater) and a strong desire to kill, maim, explode my 4-5 LFS'..... im assuming this is normal???

i have 6 KG of live rock.. (sorry.. aussie talking.. and talking in metric) on which i have about 8 Aptasia.. one big one and 7 ranging from med to small....

i purchased salt water from the local bay from areas that i know to be ok/clean. (if the LFS is telling me the truth about its origions.)

SO... back to my angryness... i read the net and it tells me im never going to get rid of the aliens in my tank.. i hope the cycle will kill them.. and my LFS (my most trusted one so far) tells me to take the live rock back and start again.. oh and by the way dont come back till i have a protine skimmer....

am i kidding my self?? I have seen beautiful reef setups with no Protine skimmers.. can i not do this without a magic wand?? do i use Aptasia X?? do i find a sick person somewhere and beg them to have a syringe (as my local chemist has already told me they dont stock them.. B/S!) and shoot em full of lemonjuice/vinegar?

can i bomb the tank with something as im only 3 days into my cycle?

DO I GIVE UP NOW!!!???

please .. help a poor (especially after paying for this setup) man dig himself out of his brand new addiction..

Kind regards..
Grug.

P.S there is some humor in this post.. i have no desire to actually hurt anyone.. but im sure the smarter ones among you have already worked this out.. but i am at my witts end at the moment.

 

[austinsdad]

Joe's Juice Aiptasia & Majano Anemones Solution

Most swear by this stuff for aptasia. Comes with a syringe too!

What are your water readings on the ammonia and nitrite so far. Watching those during your cycle, right?

And of course, Welcome to AA!!

 

[Grug]

ive heard of JJ.. not really available in Australia tho.. can get online but customs might get angry at me..

see.. LFS said dont worry about testing water during the 4-6 week cycle untill the end.. will order testing kit at the same time as i try to get JJ or similar..

and.. Thanks!

 

[HN1]

Welcome!

I agree with AD. This is a most likely a really good start. Go slow, be patient, and try not to get too frustrated. Joe's juice or a homemade kalk paste should work on the aiptasia. I've run both a 20G and 50G (no clue what that would be in your crazy metric math based speak) without skimmer so it is entirely possible. It will hinge on you doing weekly changes.

 

[Jimbo7]

Since there is nothing else in there, I doubt you'll need the accuracy of a syringe. Take some RO/DI water and boil it, suck it out with a turkey baster really quick they get as close to the thing as you can and blast em. A couple treatments of that should take care of them.

 

[austinsdad]

I really prefer to see the ammonia and nitrite levels go up and down, and what exactly the reading are to know how well my tank cycles. I'd recommend that highly instead of just waiting for 4-6 weeks and thinking the cycle is done and was successful.

Either totally or somewhat uncured rock with die-off (decaying matter) to create a higher ammonia reading, or you may have cured or semi cured rock withouth die-off that gives you no ammonia reading . Either way is good, but I'd prefer to know which if it were my tank.

And like Jimbo said, no worries about other things in the tank. And so what if killing aptasia causes die-off. Go for it.

 

[StripesTheEel]

Aiptasia-X is readily available for Aiptasia sp. removal mate.

 

[Krypt]

Everything your looking to do is reasonable, but as with all things there are drawbacks. Running a tank with no skimmer means you have to be on top of weekly water changes to get the dissolved organics out of your tank. If you don't, you'll experience algae problems constantly.

As far as the aiptasia, you have a few options to go with. You can go the route of using Aip-X or a similar kalk type solution and inject them. That method is proven to work. If the aip's are only on one rock, you can just toss it into your garden landscape outside, no harm done. Another thing you can do if you want to keep the rock, is toss it in a pan and boil it. Boiling the rock will kill the aips, but will also kill everything on it essentially turning it into base rock.

My all time favorite method was one my friend, who is a welder, came up with. He took the rocks out that had them and blasted the area with the pests with his trusty blow torch. Hasn't had any since lol. Personally, since budget is an issue I would just boil the bad rocks and start them off fresh. They will reseed in time with the existing rock in the tank and it's a free treatment. Good luck with your tank!

 

[harmy4993]

I recommend a test kit for this reason. How you going to know when you are cycled without testing? You dont have to test every day. Test once when you get the kit. Then depending on the results you can test a week later or two weeks later.

Two best advice i can give you is this:

Nothing, and i mean NOTHING good happens fast in salt water. Algea, ick and other gunk may show up over night but it likely built up over time wiyhout you knowing. And its not going away over night. So dont panic. And dont try and rush things. There are no miracle over night cures for anything.

2nd. Research, research, research. Always know what your buying. Dont impulse buy anything alive or it could eat or destroy everything else you paid for.

3rd tip is a bonus tip. When in doubt water test and water change. New clean water will never hurt. If something seems strange, then do water tests then do a water change, then post on the forum.

And sorry this isnt a tip but we require pictures, love pictures. Yes we have tanks, we have lights, we have skimmers, we have all seen a million clown fish but we still want to see yours .

 

[Idaho-Tank]

What about the Aiptasia that you can't access? If there are some that you can see on top of the rock etc... would it be safe to assume that there may be some you can't see or get to under or on the back side of the rock? I have been looking into this as well as I have found a few on my new live rock too.

One reason I like the idea of a peppermint shrimp (even though there are no guarantees) it can reach into areas where our hands/syringes cant.

Someone told me that its likely that a peppermint shrimp will take care of an Aiptasia problem (not always - but usually) especially if the tank is not fed with foods very often. So I was thinking about getting a peppermint shrimp first or early on and making sure to keep him nice and hungry in the beginning.

There is also the Berghia Nudibranchs which specialize in eating Aiptasia... problem is though that once out of Aiptasia they have nothing to eat and a dead Nudibranch is not a good thing in a tank.

 

[Jimbo7]

Peppermint shrimp will usually eat aiptasia, provided you actually buy a peppermint shrimp.

Peppermint Shrimp Imposters in Saltwater Aquaria: Lysmata wurdemanni is the Real Aiptasia-Eater for the Reef Tank

You are right on the Berghia, leave them in the ocean.

Copperband Butterflies also will eat aiptasia, but they have their own drawbacks.

 

[austinsdad]

Peps will not touch larger aptasia usually.

 

[Grug]

Thankyou all for the great advice.. i think im going to go with the Apt-x goop and see how i go with that.. im lucky in a sense that im able to pick up the rock and move it around to search out the hidden ones..

and will be getting the test kit real soon.. i had heard that some live rock is already cured and therefore the tank cycle will happen alot sooner but that doesnt really matter as i have to save up a bit before i can get any guests for my tank.

i like shrimp.. i believe i have to get 2 of them which worries me as i have a small tank and the wife has already decided all the fish she wants. but i may have to veto some choices.

Photos are on the way.. it is a very good looking setup.. (the outside anyways) inside so far is just rocks and aptasia.

Catch you all very very soon.

 

[Grug]

these Aptasia things can walk around?? slowly all be it.. but i have had one (my biggest one) move about 3 inches in 2 days!!!

have ordered aptasia X.. now to stake out the mailbox.

 

[Grug]

And sorry this isnt a tip but we require pictures, love pictures. Yes we have tanks, we have lights, we have skimmers, we have all seen a million clown fish but we still want to see yours .

Pic taken right after fill.. no aptasia to be seen ..

 

[austinsdad]

What made you decide to go bare bottom?

Lookin good!

 

[Grug]

What made you decide to go bare bottom?

Lookin good!

I havnt, have read in some setup guides that the substrate can wait till the middle or even the end of the cycle.. (especially crushed coral) so i used that as part of my budget load spread and will be using a thick layer of CC next week or so.

Prob after i have moved everything around to get to all the aptasia thats springing up.

 

[Jimbo7]

I havnt, have read in some setup guides that the substrate can wait till the middle or even the end of the cycle.. (especially crushed coral) so i used that as part of my budget load spread and will be using a thick layer of CC next week or so.

Prob after i have moved everything around to get to all the aptasia thats springing up.

I would stay away from CC if you can help it. It collects excess food and detrius, and eventually becomes a nitrate factory. Aragonite is the preferred substrate for a majority of people.

 

[Grug]

I would stay away from CC if you can help it. It collects excess food and detrius, and eventually becomes a nitrate factory. Aragonite is the preferred substrate for a majority of people.

Aragonite... Thanks.. ill see what i can find.. but that answer is for a question ill be asking next week..

 

[mrg02d]

If you are still in the ammonia stages of the cycle, you could raise the ammonia level such that the aiptasia die. My first tank started at 8ppm ammonia. Id expect that to kill everything ...You can get pure ammonia at a hardware store.

Matt